In the morning, I did a 'round robin' class taken by Jennifer Aikman-Smith (Dragon Dreams), Jeannette Douglas (JD Designs), Kathrin Ellison (Gitta's) and Ietje Jackovich (Gitta's). The design was a sampler by Jen A-S using all sorts of different stitches and threads and each of them taught a different technique. Jen did stitching with metallic threads and rice stitch, Jeannette taught us drawn thread and pulled work with a fantastic way of securing the cut areas of fabric without using satin stitch, but in such a way as it was invisible when finished. Ietje did stitching with overdyed threads and the many and varied versions of herringbone stitch (which she adores) and Kathrin did petit point and stitching over one.
They are all great teachers and it was wonderful to actually get to meet them all. Especially Jen and Jeannette, Jen is a lovely woman, quite quiet but with a wicked sense of humour, Jeannette is a very 'girlish' and enthusiastic person who gets quite overwhelmed and squealy when people complement her, it was quite entertaining to watch her in the class and later at Gitta's booth in the trade hall
The trade hall itself was quite disappointing as I was expecting something much bigger than Olympia but it wasn't really. There was also very little actual cross stitching stuff. Loads of knitting, scrapbooking, quilting and beading, and quite a lot of non-stitching stuff.
That said I got a real shock at one of the stalls. I was nosing about a stand with xs charts and kits on, and saw a huge section of Dimples Designs stuff including a new one that I hadn't seen before which I really liked. I decided I wanted it but I could only see a kit for it. So I turned to ask this little guy on the till if there was just a chart for it and his response was 'No, it's really had to get hold of Glenshee Linen (which is the recommended fabric) so I decided to only do it in kit form'.... My response... 'Are you Terry Nolan?'... Him: 'Yes I am.'... Me: *girly squealing*
So I got to meet Terry as well. He's really sweet and was quite surprised that we'd even heard of him in the UK. The big news is that he's been thinking of coming over to 'do' Ally Pally next year but wasn't sure if he'd be well received so I assured him that he would indeed be very well received and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he does decide to come and visit us over here.
My purchases on the day included Mermaids of the Deep Blue (the new Mira) with some Oceanic (Belfast) SMF to stitch it on. Thyridia (the kit) and Wee Beasties 9 & 10 from Terry and a couple of Celtic charts from the Camus International stand.
I’ve almost finished the sampler from the RR class now. There’s a wee bit of backstitching left to do and the only reason it’s not done is that I can’t see anywhere on the chart what colour thread I’m supposed to use for it. I’ve emailed Jen to ask her but I think she’s been a bit busy recently. I may have to mail her again. I’ve already moved it to the completed section on the sidebar because, well, the b/s will take all of 10 mins once I know the colour to use. Then I can post a piccy of it too.
Stitching update
So, I’ve finished (almost) the CSNF RR Sampler. Started Thyridia and got about halfway through it before my eyes started to water just at the thought of picking it up again (it’s over one on 32 count). Started a Whitework Band Sampler and I’m about halfway through that one too. Started and finished Lorna’s RR piece and I have a pic to post of that when I can be bothered to get the card out of the camera.
I also spent a couple of evenings kitting up. In my many ferretings through boxes of stitchy stash I’ve found and pulled a lot of charts, fabrics, threads, beads and charms, all of which are intended to go together. So I bought myself some A4 plastic wallets with binder strips (so they go in ring binders) and started putting them together. Any chart for which I had other materials got kitted, even if I didn’t have everything for it. This only includes speciality threads unless I’ve bought DMC especially for the piece, such as the two HAEDs I have, or Egyptian Garden.
I now have 14 projects either fully or partially kitted, and let me tell you, none of these suckers is small. Two of them are afghans, two are HAEDs and two are Chatelaines (Water & Egyptian). Others include Emerald Mermaid (Mira), Fantasy Sampler (Dragon Dreams), Shroomhilde (Dimples Designs), and Fairy Moon (L&L).
Oh, no, I tell a lie, one of them is a needleroll, which is small. Just the one mind you.
Phew!
Idiot fuzzbutt update
Azrael is home again. Of course once again, in the young feline way of things, having come around from a successful op and woken up fully, he was as squirmy as a sack of ferrets (yes Sooz, really, THAT squirmy) and insisting that he was fine to go bouncing around the living room like a ping-pong ball with a ‘what limp’ expression on his fuzzy features. What actually happened was he got firmly installed in the cage once more, a plastic cone affixed to his head (oh he didn’t like that one bit), fed, watered and left to rest. I went to check on him twice last night, and once this morning, and every time he was trying to push his way out of the cage. He’s a certifiable idiot.
Because of the various ops he now has three bald patches. One on each of his front legs from the anaesthetic and drip for each of his ops, and a huge one on his right hip where they opened him up. Being a semi-longhair, he looks very silly and I keep wanting to paraphrase Ross in that episode of Friends… “You balded my cat!” Hmm… may have to post an embarrassing pic at some point.
I now have my fingers firmly crossed that this is absolutely the last bit of major feline surgery for quite some time to come.
4 weeks ago
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